Nadia Muniu-Rolle, Editor, Entertainment, Jacksonville, Fla
Many have called the movie ‘’Lion” a change of perspective and a ray of hope to lost people. This film told the tear jerking story of how Saroo Brierly (played by Dev Patel) found his way back home to his mother (played by Priyanka Bose) after being adopted by John Brierly (played by David Whenham) and Ms.Brierly (played by Nicole Kidman). This film was based on the book “Along Way Home” which was written in real life by Saroo Brierly.
The movie was filmed in the streets of Calcutta(where he was lost), Australia (where he grew up after being adopted), and “Tenestalay”(where his original home was).
The film included songs like “Blind” by Hercules & Love Affair, many orchestral songs by Dustin O’ Hall Oran and Hauschka based on scenes, and “Never Give Up” by Sia.
The main character, Saroo Brierly, has played in “The Best Marigold Hotel” franchise, “Slumdog Millionaire”, and “The Man Who Knew Infinity”, but for this film he had to “jump through hoops” to fit the character. Real life Saroo Brierly says when he actually went through this he had to “Survive on his wits and scavenge in a vast, unforgiving city threatening to swallow him up”, which made survival harder because he was only five years old.
All in all, this movie was thought provoking, but more directed to a bit of an older audience (pg13) even though the younger version of Saroo was played but Sunny Pawar. But Patel says “Most of the screen time is sunny. He leads for over an hour. I guess for marketing purposes I was all over the posters”.
The story of lost and found is a cinematic masterpiece and I rate this drama five stars.
JLCP reporting 